Abstract
In searching for the major strands of meaning in the expulsion we must keep in mind the fact that the dislocation of the Swa-bians from Hungary was not an isolated affair, but part of the great German exodus which took place at the end of World War II. As indicated earlier, during the closing phase of the war and the first years afterwards nearly fifteen million Germans of a total of over sixteen million were uprooted from their domiciles in that sector of Europe which in 1954 was made a part of the Soviet orbit.1
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The total number of Germans who lived before World War II in regions from which they fled or were expelled was 16,652,300. Of these persons 9,600,000 lived as German citizens in eastern Germany (now under Soviet and Polish authority) and 380,000 in Danzig, as citizens of the Free City of Danzig. The rest were Volksdeutsche who lived as national minorities: in the Baltic States and Memel Territory (249,500); in Poland (1,000,000); in Czechoslovakia (3,477,000); in Hungary (623,000); in Yugoslavia (536,800); and in Rumania (786,000). Federal Office of Statistics, Wiesbaden, Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste (Stuttgart: Verlag Kohlhammer, 1958), pp. 38, 45, 46. The total number of all German refugees and expellees who entered German territories, i.e., West and East Germany, West and East Berlin, the Saar Territory and Austria was 12,894,000. G. Reichling, Die Heimatsvertriebenen im Spiegel der Statistik (Berlin: Verlag von Duncker Humblot, 1958), p. 14. In addition, a much smaller number, less than a couple of thousand, found immediate refuge in Switzerland, France and overseas. Adding to this the some two million who perished during the process of the flight and deportation, we arrive at a total figure of nearly fifteen million refugees and expellees. It must be noted, however, that German statistics on this matter are strongly debated by those countries from which Germans fled and/or were expelled. The estimates of these countries (as to this date there are no detailed statistics available) present much lower figures on German population losses. For details on the flight, expulsion, the Potsdam Agreement, etc., see: Paikert, op. cit.
The governments of Rumania and Yugoslavia, though actively removing their German minorities (a total of 300,000 expellees from these countries were counted by the census of October, 1946), did not ask the Potsdam Conference for prior approval. Cf. Schechtman, Postwar Population Transfers ..., Chapter 12.
John Flournoy Montgomery, the United States Minister (envoy) to Hungary from 1933 to 1941, comments interestingly on the matter. “The Germans had a large fifth column in the country [Hungary]; but the statement that the fifth column was identical with the German minority is not true. Germans should forever hate and despise Hitler for his destruction of what had always been the best element of the German race, namely, the German minorities in eastern Europe .... Hitler succeeded in terrorizing the German minorities for whom he claimed special privileges, a kind of extra-territorial rights within the countries whose subjects they were. This was the origin of a real tragedy.” John F. Montgomery, Hungary The Unwilling Satellite, (New York: The Devin-Adair Co., 1947), pp. 168, 169.
Schieder (op. cit., Band II, p. 59 E) notes that according to an alleged statement of the erstwhile Hungarian prime minister Miklós Kállay, Hitler once promised the Hungarian regent Horthy the transfer of all Germans from that country. In Kállay’s personal account, Hungarian Premier, there is no reference to this episode. However, the regent, Horthy, did indeed write a personal confidential letter to Hitler on November 3, 1939 (Original draft in the Hungarian National Archive, Budapest [Magyar Országos Levéltár, II. C. 6.]) in which, inter alia, he comments on Hitler’s intension concerning the transfer of the Volksdeutsche to their original German motherland. “Your intention,” writes Horthy, “to transfer the German minorities into their indigenous country settles numerous questions, and eliminates friction; this excellent idea ought to be extended to all national minorities .... If your idea is ever materialized it will frustrate the efforts of those who, by exploiting the minority problem would drive a wedge between us and the German Empire. Besides, our good Swabians, whom we always liked very much, are surely the best in husbandry and agriculture of all who might be repatriated.” Magyar Országos Levéltár, Horthy Miklós Titkos Iratai ..., p. 218. Hitler did not respond (in writing at least) to this thought nor was the matter ever further elaborated by Horthy. There is also no documentary evidence that any pre-1945 government of Hungary seriously entertained such plans, let alone initiated any.
The Czechs acted on precedents established by Hitler. Both the Munich Agreement and the German-Czechoslovak Treaty of November 20, 1938 contained references to transfer, the latter in connection with the issue of option.
The Czech-American author, Radomir Luza, in referring to the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey, maintains that “a removal of population [takes] place whenever it [is] warranted by the interest of security, peace and stability in the respective regions.” He also endorses the statement of Schechtman who, inter alia, says that “Any serious and responsible physician considers every possible means of effecting a cure and has recourse to the scalpel only as a last resort. And so it is with the drastic method of population transfer. It is by no means a universal method of solving all minority problems, and should not be applied until all other agencies have been explored.” Schechtman, European Population Transfers 1939–1945, pp. 467–68. Luža adds to this that “The demand for the transfer of the Germans from Czechoslovakia was in full accordance with this balanced assessment.” Luža, op. cit., pp. 250–51.
“The speech of Hitler was followed by the conclusions of a series of treaties dealing with the evacuation of the German minorities from Italy (Oct. 21, 1939), Lithuania (Oct. 15, 1939), Esthonia (Oct. 30, 1939), Rumania (Oct. 22, 1940), and the USSR (Nov. 3, 1939, Oct. 5, 1940 and Jan. 10, 1941).” Luža, op. cit., p. 250.
A very German analysis of the meaning of the Heimat is to be found in the serious essay “Völker und Volksgruppen im Exil” of Eugen Lemberg, in Volksbote, Heft 5 (Munich: Verlag Pressverein, 1953). Also: Paul Hadrossek, Stand und Kritik der rechtstheoretischen Diskussion zum natürlichen Recht auf die Heimat, Sonderdruck aus Schlesisches Priesterjahrbuch, Band III/IV, 1964.
Article IX: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; Article XII: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, etc. ...; Article XIII: 1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. 2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country; Article XV: 1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. 2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality; Article XVII: 1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. 2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
By an irony of fate, this resolution, which also affirmed that private individuals or public officials who perpetrated this crime were punishable, was brought about by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a part of the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide on December 11, 1946 at a period when thousands of Germans were still perishing during the extremely harsh course of their removal.
Particularly the Swabians.
It should be recalled, however, that the Sudeten Germans became minorities only in 1919 with the creation of Czechoslovakia; earlier they belonged to the German-speaking population of Austria.
Cf. Paikert, op. cit., pp. 52 ff.
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© 1967 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Paikert, G.C. (1967). Post Mortem on the Expulsion. In: The Danube Swabians. Studies in Social Life, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9717-5_16
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